July 13th, 2010 by RyanDuBosar in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Research
Tags: Balloon Treatment, Cardiology, CMS, Death Rates, Decreased Mortality, Emergency Medicine, Emergency Services, Heart Attacks, Hospital Data, Hospital Improvement, Hospital Report Card, Lowering Readmissions, Medicare Patients, National Average, Public Reporting, To The Hospital Faster, U.S. Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services
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Heart attack mortality fell by nearly a half a percent last year at 4,500 hospitals that treat Medicare patients. And, facilities with the lowest and highest death rates saw similar declines, according to a new hospital report card by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
Heart attack mortality fell from a national average of 16.6 percent last year to 16.2 percent, with a range among all facilities from 14.5 percent to 17.9 percent. CMS released the data as part of its hospital report card effort to spur better quality and outcomes through public reporting of recommended treatments. The agency added heart attack and heart failure mortality to the report card three years ago.
At issue now is what’s driving the figures: public reporting of hospital data driving improvement, or faster door-to-balloon-treatment times. Areas that do need to improve include lowering readmissions and getting people to the hospital faster when they have a heart attack. (USA Today)
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Hospitalist*
July 12th, 2010 by AndrewSchorr in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion, Research
Tags: Andrew Schorr, Avandia, Biotech Drugs, Cancer Patients, CLL, CTI, Diabetes Drug, Dr. Richard Pazdur, Drug Effectiveness, Drug Safety, Empowered Patients, FDA, Food and Drug Administration, GlaxoSmithKline, Government Research, GSK, New-Drug Approval, Patient Power, Personalized Medicine, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, Pharmacology, Pixantrone, Playing Fair For Patients, Transparency In Medicine
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They have a tough job, those government doctors, scientists, and bureaucrats who are charged with assessing the safety and effectiveness of proposed new medical products. As you know, they rely largely on studies presented by the applicants.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has the power to not approve a new drug or product or even pull it off the market. Right now it is considering limiting or pulling GlaxoSmithKline’s (GSK) diabetes drug, Avandia, because of newly discovered data that it may have caused heart attack in some patients –- data mysteriously not shown in GSK’s own studies. If the drug is pulled it will cost GSK billions of dollars in lost revenue but, from the FDA’s point-of-view, it will be protecting the public. And, after all, there are safer diabetes drugs on the market as alternatives. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Andrew's Blog*
July 12th, 2010 by GarySchwitzer in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion
Tags: Care Coordination, Co-Payments, Dual Eligibles, Early Retirees, FDA, Follow-On Biologics, Food and Drug Administration, Gary Schwitzer, Health Insurance Premiums, Healthcare Changes, Healthcare Policy, Healthcare reform, HealthNewsReview.org, Kaiser Health News, Lesser-Known Provisions, Low-Income Adults, Mammograms, Medicaid Coverage, Mid-Term Elections, Preventive Medicine, Preventive Services, U.S. Healthcare System, Under-The-Radar
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Kaiser Health News proves its value once again with an under-the-radar story covering some items you won’t see in many other news sources. An excerpt:
“…several lesser-known provisions also take effect in coming months that could have a lasting impact on the nation’s health care system.
These provisions include eliminating patients’ co-payments for certain preventive services such as mammograms, giving the government more power to review health insurers’ premium increases and allowing states to expand Medicaid coverage to low-income adults without children.
While these changes might not have gotten at lot of attention, they could help build support for the law in the run-up to the contentious mid-term elections.”
Their list:
• Prevention For Less
• Knowing Which Treatments Work Best
• Helping Cover Early Retirees’ Health Costs
• Keeping Tabs on Health Insurance Premiums
• Expanded Medicaid Coverage
• Care Coordination for ‘Dual Eligibles’
• FDA Approval For ‘Follow-On Biologics’
Read the full story at the link above for details.
*This blog post was originally published at Gary Schwitzer's HealthNewsReview Blog*
July 12th, 2010 by KevinMD in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion, Research
Tags: Ad-Driven Drug Requests, Banning Drug Ads, Brand Name Prescription Drugs, Consumer Drug Marketing, Direct-To-Consumer Drug Advertising, Dr. Ray Fabius, Drug Ads, Family Medicine, General Medicine, Influence On Patients, Internal Medicine, National Public Radio, NPR, Pharmaceutical Companies, Pharmaceutical Industry, Pharmacology, Primary Care, Thomson Reuters
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How effective is direct-to-consumer drug advertising? Some think that drug ads should be banned altogether, saying that it encourages patients to ask their doctors for expensive, brand name prescription drugs. It turns out their fears may be overblown.
NPR’s Shots blogs about a recent study looking at the effectiveness of these ads. The numbers, for the pharmaceutical companies anyways, are not encouraging. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at KevinMD.com*
July 10th, 2010 by David Kroll, Ph.D. in Better Health Network, Health Tips, News, Research, True Stories
Tags: Accelerated Heart Rate, Anesthesiology, Angel's Trumpet, Anticholinergic Poisonings, Asthma Attacks, Atropa Belladonna, Belladonna Alkaloids, Bronchoconstriction, Brugmansia Genus, Erowid, Fatal Cardiac Rhythmic Disturbances, Feingold, Hallucinations, Hospitalizations, Mydriasis, Physostigmine, Pilocarpine, Poison Control, Poisoning In Kids, Tea, Tree Datura, Tropane Alkaloids, Witches Brew
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Toxicity reports are re-emerging in southern California this week after a dozen hospitalizations of kids using teas made from a fragrant flowering plant called Angel’s Trumpet.
A tea made from the plant is used to produce hallucinations, but they can progress to extremely unpleasant experiences. Moreover, Angel’s Trumpet can be deadly, accelerating the heart rate and causing fatal cardiac rhythmic disturbances and bronchoconstriction that can trigger asthma attacks in sensitive individuals. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Terra Sigillata*
